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The Buck Starts Here

by Cyndalie of AdultChamber

Every adult webmaster, at some point in time, has run themselves into circles trying to find good sources of adult traffic. Many have emptied their bankrolls hoping that a financial investment will provide long-term returns of steady profit. Abandoned adult sites, once begun with enthusiasm, end up as promotional domains for affiliate programs, or a means to push traffic for any kind of profit.

Where do webmasters turn? How do you test a product, idea, or market before investing time, talent, and money on a potentially profit generating idea? Unlike Internet marketing for online businesses, adult site marketing is a numbers game. Surfers are twice as active with actual buyers representing a small percentage of the traffic, keeping hit to sign-up ratios low. The reality is, you need three times the amount of traffic to turn a profit - so where do you start?

Search Engine Marketing was the first pioneer and best source for clean xxx traffic. The truth today is, with the saturation of adult sites and pages in the engines, high ranking for top keywords becomes more time consuming and expensive than the actual return. Many search engine spam techniques which are necessary for maximum gains often backfire when detected by the engines, resulting in a ban of the domain. This short-term marketing effort typically does not stand the test of time and more often than not results in an initial return of profits with nowhere to turn. Methods of search engine spamming may include using a large number of "promotional domain names" and filling them with doorway pages for individual keyword ranking. "Spoofing", "Cloaking", or "Bridging" is a way to detect a search engine spider by IP address and serving it a dynamically generated page designed to rank for that particular engine. This may work for a while, but it’s not a long-term and profitable means of driving traffic. Once these methods are detected by the search engine, you can try redirecting the pages, but ultimately the game is over.

WHAT WORKS?
As a search engine marketer for 4 years for a wide range of web site types, I have always preferred a straightforward marketing method. Once your site is complete, choose a NICHE of keywords related to your sites content and try to optimize the front pages of your site for those words. By creating up to 30 "doorways" for your adult site that all look somewhat different, with different keyword content, you create more "virtual real estate" and means of people finding your site with the legal disclaimer. Certain rules to follow when submitting to major search engines are:

1) No more than 2 pages per domain per day (One with www, one without);

2) No more than 30 doorway pages per domain name;

3) If you use sub domains for promotion, make sure they are individually assigned to a different IP address;

4) Try to make each doorway page look somewhat different than the others. Search engines use different algorithms for ranking pages and what works today may not work next month. By creating a variety of pages and keyword densities, you increase your odds of ranking high somewhere all the time;

5) NEVER AUTO SUBMIT to the major search engines (Excite, Google, MSN, Hotbot, Lycos, Fast, Northern Light, Altavista, etc.) When you automatically submit your URLs from a web page or software, your submission is oftentimes routed through a server IP. When 200,000 submissions come from one IP, the engine tends to ignore it. Taking the extra time to do it manually results in better odds of getting indexed and less SPAM email.

Next, you should begin submitting your site to adult search engines and link directories. AdultChamber.com has a huge list of adult search engines and direct links to the submit URL pages. This resource can save you time searching for sites to submit to and often will result in getting traffic to your site almost immediately. Create a links page or area to trade links; this is your biggest ally. The adult webmaster community is strong and by respecting the rules and working with other sites, creating mutually beneficial relationships become an enjoyable part of marketing your site.

Many adult webmasters feel that TGP's and Pic Post's are a good way to get potential buyers to preview their content free and get to their site. Before you begin creating thumbnail gallery pages, be aware that being unorganized can result in high bandwidth costs. Be sure to manage your pic pages, file sizes, and replace or remove expired pages. You can find places to submit to various Thumbnail Gallery Posts via AdultChamber.com's TGP Tools area. Another very new no-cost way of marketing via pic posts is the picture rating system setup at RateXPics.com. Webmasters can post pictures in various categories and fully manage, rotate, remove, and see the rating and traffic on each pic. All pictures link directly to the site of origin and webmasters can see what the surfers think of their content. This is useful in deciding what pics are most pleasing and what to use for both site promotions and home page displays.

Without a doubt, the adult webmaster community is tightly knit and always looking for innovative ways to drive traffic and make money with their sites. Depending on your target audience, different marketing tactics may work for you. Ultimately the way you market your adult site reflects the way you do business, so respect the rules of others and don't be afraid to ask for advice. Use Webmaster Resource Centers, support sponsors, stay involved, and aim to please!

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